im up for this. any chance we would tie it to a fantasy baseball league in during the regular season? each team that would want to play would get the players that they have in this league. it wouldnt so much be for trying to win the fantasy league per say, but it would be much easier to track our players. also it could be cool to see how the fantasy league correlates to the WiS season. and it would give us a place to talk about our teams/discuss trades and whatnot.

We'll set up a yahoo league so anyone who wants to watch their players stats and get notes on their players can have an easy place to do it.

The stat categories I'll use are the ones WIS users will care about, so no rbi's, runs scores, wins or saves. Instead we'll have OBP, WHIP, 2b, 3b, HR, HR's allowed and K's and others. So if anyone wants to try to win the Yahoo league, they can do their best, but I'll never pay a bit of attention to the standings. I'll just be using it to keep track off my team during the summer.

Here's an example. Let's say we started the league five years ago. Let me use a partial roster to show the example. Last year, you had the following players signed for $ 265. You need to keep your budget for these players this year to $ 265 or preferably less to leave some money to bid for free agents.

Jose Morales (C) $ 6 -- he's finishing up a one year contract.
Nick Swisher (OF) $ -- 65-73-81-89 -- he's finishing the third year of his four year contract so you're stuck paying him 89 this upcoming year.
Julio Borbon (OF) $ 11 he's finishing his one year contract.
Eric Thames (OF) $ 15 he's finishing his one year contract
Davis Wright (3B) 80-88-96-104-112 - he's finishing his five year contract.
Rafael Perez (P) $ 18 he's finishing his one year contract
Eric O'Flaherty (P) $ 5-15-25 -- he's finishing year two of his three year contract so you must pay him 25 this upcoming year.
Jacob Turner (P) $ 7-15-23-31-39 -- he just finished year one of his five year contract - you must pay him 15 this next season.

Now it's contract time.

Jose Morales - He's an easy one. Spent all of 2012 in the minors. We grant him free agency and free up his $ 6 salary.
Nick Swisher - No decision here. We're committed to 89 this next season.
Julio Borbon - He may never make the majors again. Going to have to grant him free agency and pocket his 11 salary.
Eric Thames - what a disappointment he's been. Give him a one year raise and watch one more year. Nope, free agency and keep the 15
David Wright -- Here's a tough one. No way another long term contract, but maybe one year at 127? I'll gamble and go three years at 122-132-142.
Rafael Perez (P) - Sorry Raffy, but you've been on the DL all year and I need that 18 elsewhere. Free agency.
Eric O'Flaherty (P) No decision needed. Got to pay him 25 next year.
Jacob Turner (P) Finally starting to pitch well. I thought I blew it signing him for 5 years. Maybe still did. Anyway, committed to 15 next season.

So where does that leave me? I have decided to resign four players, Swisher (89), Wright (122), O'Flaherty (25), Turner (15) for a total of 251. That leaves me 14 to spend on some cheapo free agents if I want to keep this part of my roster to 265. I'm hoping I can pick Thames back up in the free agent auction if I can get him for 2-3 bucks.

Hope that all makes sense. This is the fun part of the league, deciding who to cut loose and who to lock up each year. Guys like Jacob Turner will be particularly frustrating as he can be your bargain basement ace pitcher, or a dead contract for four years of some minor leaguesr you long forgot.

You can't hoard surplusses year after year. Each year your team will have to fit under the $ 1,000 budget cap twice, - after new contracts are signed and by the time the free agent auction is over. After contract signing time, you need to be at least a little bit under the cap to allow yourself some space to sign a few free agents. At the end of the free agent signing auction, you might as well be as close to 1,000 as possible as "you can't take it ith you".

It is possible for a team to temporarily be over the cap due to an inseason trade for Albert Pujols for instance, but when contract time comes up, and the free agent auction is over, you have to be back to 1,000.

The lessons there are be careful before you trade for a guy with a big five year contract on his back. Theoretically, Johan Santana might carry such a contract today were the league going for a while.

Also, there will be good free agents in every draft class so don't spend everything at contract time. Some guys like Santana, Pujols , etc will have their contracts expire and will be released to free agency because they are either too expensive, or a team wants to rebuild and use the contract money freed up for 4-5 prospects (Josh Vitters, Jacob Turner types.).